Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Former M.Sc. student, Department of Horticultural Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Horticultural Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran

3 Associate Professor, Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran.

4 Assistant Professor, Department of Soil Science, Agricultural Research Center of Golestan Province, Gorgan, Iran.

Abstract

One of the most important factors in lawn establishment is the culture bed. In the present work, we
evaluated the effect of some culture beds (1-leaf mold (LM), 2-rice husk (RH), 3-manure, 4-spent
mushroom compost (SMC), 5-mixture of LM, RH and SMC (M 1), 6-mixture of LM, RH and M (M 2),
with the ratio of 1:1:1 for both mixtures, along with 7-control treatment in three compactness levels (roll
with 36, 56 and 76 kg weights) on some growth factors of sport lawn during spring. Therefore, an
experiment carried out during 2008-9 in the research farm of Gorgan University of Agricultural Science
and Natural Resources in strip plots design with three replications. According to obtained results, the
interactions of fertilizer and compactness treatments for some of the measured traits were significant. The
highest and the lowest chlorophyll content and plant height in all three compactness levels were observed
in M2 and control treatments, respectively. Furthermore, in all three compactness levels, the highest dry
matter devoted to control treatment and the lowest one was observed in M2 and manure treatment. In case
of lawn coverage rate, density and greenness, the interaction of fertilizer and compactness treatments was
insignificant and SMC and M2 showed the highest coverage rate and greenness respectively. In
conclusion, organic materials have to be considered as one of the important factors as a result of their
structural effect on soil physicochemical and biological features.

Keywords